Google

(often lowercase) to search the Internet for information about (a person, topic, etc.):

We googled the new applicant to check her background.

verb (used without object), Googled, Googling.

3.

(often lowercase) to use a search engine such as Google to find information, a website address, etc., on the Internet.

Origin

1998

1998; after mathematical term googol

Can be confused

goggle, Google, googol.

Word story

Founded in 1998, the website Google.com has become such
an institution that in its short existence, it has changed not only the
way we process the endless data found on the information superhighway,
but also the way we think and talk about the Internet. The term google itself is a creative spelling of googol, a number equal to 10 to the 100th power, or more colloquially, an unfathomable number. Googol was coined in the 1930s and is attributed to the nine-year-old nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner.
Soon after Google was created, the trademarked company name became a
popular verb. People were “googling” all sorts of information, including
their own names. When users google
themselves, unless their names are absurdly rare, they may find their
“googlegangers” (a portmanteau word combining “google” and
“doppelgänger”), or their namesakes, listed in the Google search
results. A whole new industry has sprung up around Google, including the new field of search-engine optimization,
or SEO, which works to boost the ranking of a name or term in Google
and other search-engine results. In 2005, the newly-minted term Google bomb
became popular, to describe the intentional skewing of Google search
results by creating links to misleading Web pages. Whether we like it or
not, we now live in a Google-centric world.

Related Quotations

“Google has come to represent all our hopes,
dreams, and fears about the disruptive promise and dangers of the
Internet.“ —Rob Hof, “Is Google Too Powerful?“ Bloomberg Businessweek(April 9, 2007)

“Google's uncorporate slogan—‘Don't be evil’—appeals to Americans who embrace underdogs.“ —Ken Auletta, Googled: The End of the World As We Know It(2009)

“Show us a man or woman who’s never Googled an
ex, and we’ll show you someone without an Internet connection.“ —Em & Lo, “You, Again: Reconnecting with the ex is a dicey proposition“ New York(September 24, 2006)

“I know nothing about this man, except for what I Googled.“ —Irene Zutell, Pieces of Happily Ever After(2009)

British Dictionary definitions for Google

Google

/ˈɡuːɡəl/

noun trademark

1.

a popular search engine on the internet

verb (without a cap)

2.

to search for (something on the internet) using a search engine

3.

to check (the credentials of someone) by
searching for websites containing his or her name

Contemporary definitions for Google

to search for information about a specific person through the Google search engine

Examples

She googled her high school boyfriends.

Word Origin

trademark Google

Usage Note

googling n

verb

to search for information on the Internet, esp. using the Google search engine

Examples

We googled to find the definition of the new word.

Word Origin

trademark Google

Usage Note

googling n

Word Origin and History for Google

google

v.

"to search (something) on the Google search engine," 2000 (do a google on was used by 1999). The domain google.com was registered in 1997. A verb google was an early 20c. cricket term in reference to a type of breaking ball.

Google in Technology

World-Wide Web The World-Wide Web search engine
that indexes the greatest number of web pages - over two billion by
December 2001 and provides a free service that searches this index in
less than a second. The site's name is apparently derived from "googol", but note the difference in spelling. The
"Google" spelling is also used in "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"
by Douglas Adams, in which one of Deep Thought's designers asks, "And
are you not," said Fook, leaning anxiously foward, "a greater analyst
than the Googleplex Star Thinker in the Seventh Galaxy of Light and
Ingenuity which can calculate the trajectory of every single dust
particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand blizzard?" (http://google.com/). (2001-12-28)